Wikimedia Commons

File:A coat of arms for John Wesley (BM 1868,0808.4580).jpg

Original file ‎(2,082 × 2,500 pixels, file size: 1.23 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Captions

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Summary edit

A coat of arms for John Wesley   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Title
A coat of arms for John Wesley
Description
English: Frontispiece from 'Perfection; a poetical Epistle, calmly addressed to the greatest Hypocrite in England', an attack on Wesley for his 'Calm Address to our American Colonies', 1775.


A fantastic escutcheon whose supporters are, dexter, a wolf wearing the fleece of a sheep, and sinister, a fox. Objects on the shield have letters referring to notes beneath the design giving references to the verses. Above a chevron are (dexter chief) a, an open book inscribed "Forms and Lies" and "Book of Common Prayer; b", a key. Middle chief, a money bag inscribed "40 Guis". Sinister chief, "d", a mouse-trap and a crozier. Below the chevron: Middle base, the façade of a building with a pediment inscribed "I.W." [John Wesley] surmounted by a cupola having a weathercock pointing to "N", that is, to Lord North. It flies two flags, one inscribed "Calm Address", p. 21, the other "Perfection". At the centre base of an ornamental border to the escutcheon is the head of Wesley, wearing bands, his mouth open. Beneath it is a ribbon inscribed, "My . Son . get. Money."
The wolf, the dexter supporter (l.), wears a fleece inscribed "I.W.", he excretes a blast inscribed "c, New Light 40 Articles". The reference is to:

"if Ministers but nod,
Make earthly Kings co-equal with thy God
To other rightules of Faith add this of thine
And tack one Item more to Thirty-nine."

He stands on three superimposed slabs, inscribed "Impostor Detected. Letters. Contributions to the Stock. Evans. I.W. detected". The fox (r.) excretes "News from America"; he stands on three slabs inscribed "Subscriptions / to the Temple. Rowland Hill", p. 17.
The crest is a mitre inscribed "Erasmus", with "e", a dagger and the motto "Good Will towards Men". 1778


Etching
Depicted people Associated with: Caleb Evans
Date 1778
date QS:P571,+1778-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 226 millimetres
Width: 185 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1868,0808.4580
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935) Since Wesley's 'Calm Address to our American Colonies', an unacknowledged abridgement of Johnson's 'Taxation No Tyranny' sold at a penny and achieving a great circulation, Wesley had been the target of virulent abuse which reached a climax of scurrility in 1778. See Tyerman, 'Life and Times of Wesley', iii. 261 ff. It was followed by 'A Calm Address to the Inhabitants of England', 1778. 'A wolf in Sheep's clothing or an old Jesuit unmasked . . .' was published in 1775. The mitre is an allusion to the allegations of Toplady and Rowland Hill, that Wesley had asked Erasmus, bishop of Arcadia in Crete, to consecrate him bishop and had been refused. The dagger is supposed to indicate the effect of the Calm Address: "And massacre Mankind with calm address." The slabs supporting the wolf and fox are inscribed with the names of attacks on Wesley: the chief attack on the 'Calm Address' had been by Caleb Evans, a Baptist minister and a 'patriot' in 'A Letter to the Rev. Mr John Wesley occasioned by his "Calm Address"'. Rowland Hill's pamphlet of abuse was 'Imposture detected . . .' 1777. The weathercock pointing to the north indicates that Wesley has sold himself to the Ministry. Wesley's New Chapel in the City Road, opened in 1778, was built by subscriptions. The key on the escutcheon represents "the Keys of Hell", because of Wesley's alleged fulminations against non-Methodists. The mouse-trap is "Priestcraft's Trap".

This print and BMSat 5494-6, 5576, are all frontispieces to scurrilous pamphlets in verse by the same writer, all published by J. Bew, Paternoster Row. 'Perfection' is attributed to W. Combe by J. C. Hotten in his introduction to 'Dr Syntax' [1868], p. xli.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-4580
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Licensing edit

This image is in the public domain because it is a mere mechanical scan or photocopy of a public domain original, or – from the available evidence – is so similar to such a scan or photocopy that no copyright protection can be expected to arise. The original itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
Public domain

This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.

This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.

This tag is designed for use where there may be a need to assert that any enhancements (eg brightness, contrast, colour-matching, sharpening) are in themselves insufficiently creative to generate a new copyright. It can be used where it is unknown whether any enhancements have been made, as well as when the enhancements are clear but insufficient. For known raw unenhanced scans you can use an appropriate {{PD-old}} tag instead. For usage, see Commons:When to use the PD-scan tag.

Note: This tag applies to scans and photocopies only. For photographs of public domain originals taken from afar, {{PD-Art}} may be applicable. See Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag.

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current03:41, 14 May 2020Thumbnail for version as of 03:41, 14 May 20202,082 × 2,500 (1.23 MB)Copyfraud (talk | contribs)British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1778 #7,736/12,043

You cannot overwrite this file.

Metadata

This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.

Retrieved from "https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:A_coat_of_arms_for_John_Wesley_(BM_1868,0808.4580).jpg&oldid=777974730"